Group IV: Durgrimst du Draumr abr Bjartskular, Clan of Brightscales' Dream

.....Sean -sunda draumr.....Tyler-stenr orúm.....Mike-hljödhr gala.....Morgan-dauthleikr.....

Utopia

• An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. Every aspect of the civilization is virtually faultless.
  
• An imaginary island described in Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516), as a society enjoying perfection in law, politics, etc.
• Plato describes his Utopia in The Republic, a fictional philosophical dialogue written in 380 BCE.
  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_(dialogue)

Sir Thomas More

• Was an English chancellor to King Henry VIII, and was beheaded after refusing to divorce the king from Queen Catherine.
• He was born on February 7, 1478 and was beheaded on July 1, 1535.
• He was tried for treason at Westminster and executed on Tower Hill.
• He is most famous for his book Utopia where he writes about his ideal society. His view of a Utopia involves a communistic democracy.
  • The Utopia is separated into cities and towns which will be close to identical, with strict limits on how many families per town; People will alternate between living in towns and cities every 2 years.
  • Philarchs, minor criminal judges, are elected every year by 30 families, and each Archphilarchs look over 10 Philarchs.
  • Everything is free, and gold has no value.
  • Marriage has strict age laws, and adultery and premarital intercourse are both outlawed.
  • The Utopian military is hired so that they suffer no casualties, and money is no object to them so they don't suffer any loss.
  • The people have religious freedom, but must believe in one divine God and life after death.

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/more.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/more_sir_thomas.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More#Utopia

Plato

• An ancient philosopher, mathematician, and writer who helped to lay the foundations of western philosophy.
• Lived between 427 B.C.and 347 B.C in Greece
• Famous for his founding of the Academy and for naming the 5 polyhedra after the elements of the universe
• His most famous work, a fictional dialogue called The Republic, describes his vision of an ideal society.
• Plato's Utopia in The Republic was organized into a hierarchy of three defined classes, mush like the social order in Brave New World:
  • He believed that a Utopian society would rely on the perfect balance and cooperation between these groups.
  • Felt that each group would have to perform the function of their caste for the society to operate sucessfully.
    • The Guardians-the ruling class of the Utopia. It would be composed of philosopher kings who couldn't marry or own property
    • The Auxiliaries-the protecting class trained in military skills for the protection of the city state; the warriors.
    • The Producers-the class that would perform all of the necessary labor in the Utopia; farmers, merchants, etc.

http://library.thinkquest.org/18775/plato/biop.htm
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Plato.html

Plato v. Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas More's concept of Utopia included a complete religious toleration. He theorized that men who did not believe in God and the afterlife could not be trusted, this led to his belief that atheism was not acceptable in society. Also in Utopia there existed no such thing as private property. Everything was communally owned, this may have been based on Biblical communalism in The Acts of the Apostles.

Plato's Utopia had a defined social hierarchy. More's did as well; he greatly valued harmony and a strict class system. All changes to uniformity and hierarchy were perceived as dangerous. In More's Utopia everything was communal while in Plato's things were owned by individuals. Plato thought that a caste system of higher and lower classes would create social stability, while Mr. More thought that equality amongst the majority of citizens with much more limited higher powers would stabilize his Utopia .

Brave New World v. Plato & Sir Thomas More

The philosophies of both Sir Thomas Moore and Plato have striking similarities to the type of government present in Brave New World. For one, Brave New World and both of the philosophers believed that a successful utopia would have to have a strict hierarchy in effect to prosper and be peaceful. In Brave New World, soma was used to keep people happy whenever adversity entered their lives. Neither of the philosopher's works describe anything about the use of drugs to help keep the population happy. More said that atheists could not be trusted, in Brave New World anybody who went against the beliefs of the New World was though of as an outcast or a "savage". Plato thought that a successful Utopia would have to have assigned positions in the world according to their castes. This is the same fundamental belief as the government of Brave New World.





"Atra esterní ono thelduin, Mor'ranr lífa unin hjarta onr, Un du evarínya ono varda."
"May good fortune rule over you, Peace live in your heart, And the stars watch over you."